“A New Capital, Aldous Huxley, and Some Indians.” by Elizabeth Bishop

Jim is working on editing for publication in the Huxley annual this very cool article he found by Elizabeth Bishop,  the poet.  The "new capital" is the city of Brasilia,  a futuristic city.  It had been previously unpublished but got published in the Yale Review a while ago (without any footnotes or information on Huxley's visit).   He is finding out the most amazing stuff and even managed to find archives online of the local newspaper in 1958 that had a lot of coverage of Huxley's visit.  Ever the literary detective extraordinaire!

More photos on this link:

https://designkultur.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/brasilia-the-buildings-the-palace-of-the-dawn-as-seen-by-elizabeth-bishop-in-august-1958/

 Laura and Aldous

Huxley and Laura visited a number of places in Brazil on that visit and Jim found a previously unpublished conversation between him and the author,  Gilberto Freyre.  It's in Portuguese but he has been doing pretty well translating it and he got in contact with a graduate student who lives in Brasilia and who offered to translate it for him.

Ah…the internet…what fun!

Dear James,

First of all, thanks for your compliment. I've never estudied abroad, in fact I've never left Brazil. I'm finishing a post-grad in International Relations at the University of Brasília. Studying abroad is a project I am working on, so reading, writing and speaking other languages is something I have to improve. This was the purpose of the blog. Talking to you has also being a great way to improve my skills, so any remark about misuses of the english language won't be understood as a criticism. You will be helping me.

Sorry I coudn't answer you earlier. The scans were only ready yesterday. Here follows the whole dialogue. I am sure you will enjoy it. I can translate it to english if you like. You won't be asking too much. The dialogue is small and I can ask my sister and my wife for help. We'll be glad to help you.

I couldn't enlarge the picture you sent me either. But here is something that can be useful. The newspaper Jornal do Brasil has its whole archive on the web. I found a small interview with Huxley in the page 8 of 7 august 1958 (https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=0qX8s2k1IRwC&dat=19580807&printsec=frontpage&hl=pt-BR). I guess you'll find more about his travel in the following days.

In the beginning of the dialogue,it says it was published in 19 oct 1958 by Jornal do Brasil and Jornal do Comércio (Recife). Unfortunately the 19 oct 1958 file is not available in the site of Jornal do Brasil. The days near 19 oct are all available, but the 19 oct is not. I don't know why. And Jornal do Comércio de Recife doesn't have its archives on the web. However the file I send you has the whole dialogue. It has taken place in the house of Gilberto Freyre, in Apipucos, in the morning of 28 august of 1958. You will see that they talk about Brasília.

I was very impressed how Huxley was interested in Brazil. Even in Brazil we are taught to always look to the North Atlantic culture (Europe, USA and Canadá too), so when I saw Huxley taking the other way around I was really impressed. I guess you are also doing it somehow. Any day wish to visit Brasília, it will be my pleasure to show you around. Untill then I send these nice photos of our beloved city (https://bentoviana.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/brasilia-vista-do-ceu-45/)

Since you mentioned Sartre, here it goes a discourse by André Malraux about Brasília, which can also be useful (http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/actualites/dossiers/malraux2006/discours/a.m-brasilia.htm). My final course assignment was about Brasília and my sister is an architect. I guess we can help with that too, if you need.

Would you send me the draft you are working on? I would love to read it.

Felipe